Update: Brian Fallon, former spokesperson for the Clinton campaign, has said that this was “money well spent.” On CNN, Fallon said that the “sensitive nature” of the project meant that it was kept to a small number of people that did not include him. Fallon’s expression of satisfaction with the work however conflicts with what reporters say Elias told them. He notably sounded a lot like Trump in saying “opposition research occurs all the time.” Christoper Steele is a foreign national who was seeking information from foreign sources to use against Trump.

According to the Post, Elias was representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC where he retained Fusion GPS and the dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer. Elias is a partner at the Seattle-based Perkins Coie, a firm that received millions from the Clinton campaign. The Clinton team gave Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016.

The story left some reporters irate and their ire is directed against Elias and Perkins Coie. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel went public and said that Elias “vigorously” denied his involvement in the anti-Trump dossier: “When I tried to report this story. Clinton campaign lawyer [Marc Elias] pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’”

NYT reporter Maggie Haberman wrote on Twitter and joined in on the criticism and accused the Clinton team of outright lies: “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

If Elias and Perkins Coie lied to the media about the role of the Clinton campaign and the DNC in the affair, such allegations fall into a murky area of legal ethics. Elias was clearly representing clients in this matter. Attorneys are subject to a code of ethics that bars them from making false statements in representation. This is usually a matter of court filings or litigation, which have well-defined systems for addressing such misconduct. Lying to the media is less defined but still covered by ethical rules.

While recognizing the duty of lawyers to defend their clients in the court of public opinion, the American Bar Association has repeatedly stressed that they can be disciplined for a variety of violations from making improper extrajudicial comments to violating prosecutorial limits to attacking judges. One such limitation is found in Model Rule 8.4(c) which makes it improper for a lawyer to “engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.” In this case, Elias not only allegedly actively participated in putting out false information to the public in a presidential election but hampered efforts to establish responsibility in a matter of great public significance.

Then there is Rule 4.1:

Transactions With Persons Other Than Clients
Rule 4.1 Truthfulness In Statements To Others

In the course of representing a client a lawyer shall not knowingly:

(a) make a false statement of material fact or law to a third person; or

(b) fail to disclose a material fact to a third person when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by a client, unless disclosure is prohibited by Rule 1.6.

However, it is important to note that we have not heard a response from either Elias or Perkins Coie on these serious allegations.

The alleged denials by Elias also raise potential criminal risks if any false or misleading comments were made to federal or congressional investigators, though it is not clear if such interviews have occurred.

Elias and Perkins Coie will now face some very serious questions going forward. Elias already spoke to the media on the allegations and did not claim privilege. This could also be fashioned as a possible criminal matter by investigators in negating privilege assertions. However, Elias has already gone public on the alleged involvement of both the Clinton campaign and DNC in the dossier controversy. It will be hard to get that cat to walk backwards.

State Laws
When people think about the law, some of the first things that come to mind might be the Constitution or the Supreme Court. However, the fact is that most of our interactions with legal issues and the law actually involve matters of state and local laws

The American Civil Rights Union
The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) is dedicated to protecting the civil rights of all Americans by publicly advancing a Constitutional understanding of our essential rights and freedoms.

The Federalist Society
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order.

The Innocence Project
The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

The Rutherford Institute
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization based in Charlottesville, Va., is deeply committed to protecting the constitutional freedoms of every American and integral human rights of all people through legal and education programs

The Thomas More Law Center
Thomas More Law Center mission is to: Preserve America’s Judeo-Christian heritage; freedom of Christians; sanctity of human life; strong National Defense ; a free and sovereign USA